In the course of a long study of detective fiction I have never met any sleuths with a gift of loquacity like that of Messrs. Corson and Gibbs, who during the first part of In the Onyx Lobby (Hodder and Stoughton) make futile efforts to trace the murderer of Sir Herbert Binney, proprietor of Binney's Buns. Sir Herbert had gone to New York to persuade his nephew to become the manager of an American branch of a Binney Bun factory, and, on returning late at night to his apartment-house, was stabbed to death. Fortunately Miss Carolyn Wells seems to have grown as tired of them as I did, and they give way to one Pennington Wise (whose name did not prepossess me in his favour) and his assistant, Zizi. This couple have the authentic sleuth-touch, and their detection of those implicated in the murder is a very ingenious piece of work. There is so much padding in this book that if Sir Herbert had worn a tithe of it no stabber could even have scratched him; but with judicious skipping it will wile away two or three idle hours. And, as I said, the solution is a really skilful piece of work.
"I 'ear she's 'ad a legacy o' twenty pounds left 'er."
"Yes, she 'as. But one good thing about 'er is, 'er wealth ain't spoilt 'er."
Extract from an account of the unveiling of the portrait of Mr. ——, M.P.:—
"It was a happy idea to unveil the portrait in a darkened room."
Local Paper.
But after the Leverhulme-John episode we ought to have been told whose was the happy idea, the artist's or the sitter's?